Thursday, August 26, 2010

Beth Revis, blogger friend and writing buddy, is living the dream. She worked hard for her success and reading her blog and being part of her journey in a even a small way has really made breaking into print seem more like possibility and less like a pipe dream.

Right now, the first chapter of her novel is up on her novel's official launch site. Go read. You'll understand right away why this novel is going to be a hit. Personally, I think Across the Universe is going to do for YA sci-fi what The Hunger Games did for YA dystopian fiction.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I wrote/rewrote/revised 12 scenes over the last three days - 22,760 words.

I have one left - the ending (I even skipped ahead to write my eipilogue first...haha! Stage fright, perhaps?) I wanted to finish last night but I was pretty much burnt out by the time Erik got home from work and going a little stir crazy!

Apparently, when I need to get out of the house after a long day of writing, I want to shop for random shit. This included four mugs (same mug, different colors: purple, green, yellow, red), a neon green towel-rug to match my insane shower curtain covered in neon color sea creatures (I was sad said rug didn't come shaped like a fish. The search continues!), and a set purple hangers. Oh, and cat food.

I'm very excited. I have chapters 29-33 and the epilogue printed out for my first review. Chapater 34 will be one long scene and the last of the book. Right now, looks like I'll end up at about 147,000 words, and about 514 pages, double spaced. I've done trimming on pages 1-233, and got rid of about 20k words (this included cutting two scenes and combining two others). So, I confident at the very worst I'll be able to trim it back to around 130k just by tweaking and cutting extra words and not cutting more scenes. Ideally, I want to get under 120k. (Even if under means 119,999, dang it!)

My query goal date is Sept 20.

I am confident this will happen. And that when I finish this last scene, that I will have told the story I set out to tell two years ago.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

In my recent struggle with my ever growing word count - which I think will top out at 160k for this draft before I start cutting back - I decided to email one of the editors I worked with at BONI. I thought her advice was interesting, and something that might help others trying to trim that final draft.

I'd advise you to not worry about it right this minute, to finish it all up and then let it sit for just a bit. Then go back in and first edit for larger story issues, asking yourself what, if anything, you can remove in terms of CONTENT. Are there scenes that don't quite further the action of the story or that play out at much the same emotional "temperature" as immediately preceding or following scenes? Be tough and ask, "WILL THE READER MISS THIS?" Not, of course, whether or not YOU'LL miss it because you clearly might but whether or not the reader's experience will be significantly diminished without that scene. THEN, after you've done that larger scale edit, I'd go back through and do the "house cleaning" line edit, looking for redundancies, etc. I think you'll be surprised how much fat you can trim away without hurting the story. In fact, often doing so makes things sharper and more resonant.

With just a few minutes spent thinking about her advice, I came up with three places where I should be able to cut scenes. I hope they are many, many words. :)

About Me

I write for an employee magazine by day, and when I'm not making corporate propaganda more fun to read, I write fiction. I also play way too many video games, am obsessed with Riddick from the movie Pitch Black, and drink lots of Diet Coke with Lime.

PNWA

The Screaming Guppy

Why the Screaming Guppy?

Once upon a time, a circle of friends decided it would be fun to have nicknames, more specifically, animal nicknames. As names trickled in, there were those such as The Crafty Badger, The Wiley Minx, The Fox and The Party Weasel. Then, in the twists and turns of the maze of cruel humor, the last name dished out was The Screaming Guppy. Why? Because, at times, I tend to be loud when I get excited about something and they thought it would be funny to make me a feeder fish. (That and I once had a pet guppy that refused to die.) Unfortunately, the name as stuck and despite many appeals I still remain the only non-mammal in the group.